Tuesday
3/23/2010 03:07:00 PM

At Google, we are encouraged to experiment and tinker to see if there is a better way of doing things. We want to encourage others in the energy monitoring space to do the same. To this end, I'd like to introduce our most recent strategic partner Microchip, which is a supplier of cost-effective, innovative products for the embedded developer. Today, Microchip will include as part of their developer demonstration environment the Google PowerMeter API library that we recently announced. This integration will make it much easier to create devices compatible with Google PowerMeter which means one can more quickly go from concept to demo to product.

The Google PowerMeter API is designed to work with a variety of energy monitoring devices - from utilities with smart meters, back haul networks and enterprise scale meter data management systems - to small embedded consumer devices that can send energy information directly to Google PowerMeter.

Google's belief in open source also means that the Google PowerMeter API library is available to everyone under the Apache 2.0 license. Embedded developers, tinkerers and makers are welcome to explore the code and use it in their products.

As we search for clean energy alternatives, it is important that everyone - from utilities to garage inventors - get a chance to try out new technologies and methods so that we all benefit from their inspirations.